


Ash and Dust

by ready_to_kick_some_ass



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Desperation, Everything Hurts, Hurt/Comfort, Infinity War spoilers, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-05-02 01:19:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14533569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ready_to_kick_some_ass/pseuds/ready_to_kick_some_ass
Summary: After everyone around him faded to ash, Tony is alone on a strange planet and feels like this is his punishment ... (Infinity War Spoilers)





	Ash and Dust

Tony looks at his hands with wide open eyes.  
He looks at the ash, that is slowly falling down from them. Down on the red, dusty earth.  
  
It’s silent around him now.  
All he can hear is his own, hectic breath.  
  
And the voice in his head.  
His voice.  
_Peter’s_ voice.  
His last words … reverberating in Tony’s mind again and again.  
  
_I don’t want to go._  
I don’t want to go.  
I’m sorry.  
_Mr. Stark._  
  
“Oh God,” Tony whispers. “Oh God … no … wake up!” He slaps himself in the face. Hard. “Come on, wake up!”  
  
He doesn’t.  
Of course he doesn’t.  
  
Because this time, it isn’t a hallucination. Isn’t a dream.  
This is reality.  
This is apocalypse.  
This is his own personal hell.  
  
He hears himself whimpering.  
Tears start to well up in his eyes.  
He doesn’t fight them.  
He allows them to come. Allows them to run over his face.  
There’s no need to act strong now, is there?  
He allows the tears to fall to the ground. To add to the ash.  
  
The pain burns his insides.  
It’s a raging, white fire, that consumes him completely.  
  
He raises his head.  
He looks at the dark sky above him.  
  
He opens his mouth and screams.  
He screams and screams, until he’s hoarse.  
And when he has no breath left, he just sobs.  
His whole body starts to tremble.  
He gasps and wraps his arms around himself.  
After a few minutes, he’s drenched in cold sweat.  
  
The pain …  
It’s unbearable.  
But still, it gets stronger and stronger.  
  
It’s the pain of regret, guilt and desperation.  
It’s the pain of knowing, that there will be no waking up from this.  
  
The prophecy has come true.  
Tony Stark saw his friends die and is alone.  
Utterly alone.  
  
A voice inside his head whispers, _you don’t know that. Rogers and the others on earth … you don’t know if this ... this thing happened there too._  
But he shoves that hopeful-pathetic-stupid-voice aside.  
Shoves it into the raging fire of pain that’s tearing apart his insides.  
  
No place for hope at the end of the world.  
  
There’s just place for the one question, that now starts to fill his mind.  
Why? Why is he left? Why isn’t he dead too? Why isn’t he ash and dust like the …  
Oh God, the boy.  
Peter … He was just a boy. It had been Tony’s job to protect him.  
What did he do? What did he _think_?  
He dragged a boy, a kid into this hell battle.  
He’s the worst.  
  
Slowly, Tony starts to understand, that this must be his punishment.  
Yes. It’s fitting.  
He will pay for his sins with being alive.  
With being the only one on a dusty, empty planet in space.  
  
Tony keeps sitting on the place, where Peter Parker disintegrated into ash in his arms. He’s sitting there and lets the pain consume his whole mind.  
He doesn’t think about his next step.  
He doesn’t think about the future.  
He thinks nothing.  
He just _feels_.

Tony closes his eyes. He accepts his punishment.


End file.
